the House.
The shooting up his leg warned him that his doctor had not
overestimated the situation. But he had a little mental worry now
which had for the moment eclipsed his physical ailments. He tapped the
ground impatiently with his stick until the door of the dressing-room
swung open, and a tall, elegant lady of rather more than middle age
swept into the chamber. Her hair was touched with grey, but her calm,
sweet face had all the freshness of youth, and her gown of green shot
plush, with a sparkle of gold passementerie at her bosom and shoulders,
showed off the lines of her fine figure to their best advantage.

"You sent for me, Charles?"

"Whose carriage was that which drove away just now?"

"Oh, you've been up!" she cried, shaking an admonitory forefinger.
"What an old dear it is! How can you be so rash? What am I to say to
Sir William when he comes? You know that he gives up his cases when
they are insubordinate."

"In this instance the case may give him up," said the Minister,
peevishly; "but I must beg, Clara, that you will answer my question."

"Oh! the carriage! It must have been Lord Arthur Sibthorpe's."

"I saw the three chevrons upon the panel," muttered the invalid.

His lady had pulled herself a little straighter and opened her large
blue eyes.

"Then why ask?" she said. "One might almost think, Charles, that you
were laying a trap! Did you expect that I should deceive you? You
have not had your lithia powder."

"For Heaven's sake, leave it alone! I asked because I was surprised
that Lord Arthur should call here. I should have fancied, Clara, that
I had made myself sufficiently clear on that point. Who received him?"

"I did. That is, I and Ida."

"I will not have him brought into contact with Ida. I do not approve
of it. The matter has gone too far already."

Lady Clara seated herself on a velvet-topped footstool, and bent her
stately figure over the Minister's hand, which she patted softly
between her own.

"Now you have said it, Charles," said she. "It has gone too far--I
give you my word, dear, that I never suspected it until it was past all
mending. I may be to blame--no doubt I am; but it was all so sudden.
The tail end of the season and a week at Lord Donnythorne's. That was
all. But oh! Charlie, she loves him so, and she is our only one! How
can we make her miserable?"

"Tut, tut!" cried the Minister impatiently, slapping on the plush arm
of his chair. "Th